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DAVE SCHERBENCO / THE CITIZENS' VOICE
John Stone hides behind paperwork as a state trooper leads him to his arraignment in Swoyersville on Sunday. Stone, of Shickshinny, is accused of killing his former girlfriend, Catherine Tabit, with a hatchet following an argument.

BOB KALINOWSKI / THE CITIZENS' VOICE
This North Canal Street house in Shickshinny is where Stone allegedly killed Tabit.

SHICKSHINNY - Abuzz with police activity a day earlier, the neighborhood where a 37-year-old Kingston woman was bludgeoned to death with a hatchet returned to quiet Monday.

Neighbors struggled to comprehend the brutal beating of Catherine Tabit as well as the heinous crime her former boyfriend, John Stone of Shickshinny, is charged with commiting.

"You don't know what happened to set him off," said Shickshinny Mayor Beverly Moore, who lives several houses away from the 131 N. Canal St. murder scene. "It's something all of us will never understand."

Stone, 58, stands accused of killing Tabit while they argued about when he would drive her home to Kingston.

"It's a horrible tragedy," said Moore, who has lived on the quiet, riverfront street for 18 years. "For as long as I lived here, we haven't had a homicide in town."

According to neighbors, Stone, who is battling cancer, was a nice man and normally very calm.

"I was shocked," said a neighbor who declined to give her name. "I've never even heard him raise his voice."

The woman said her husband, Stone and Stone's tenant met Saturday morning to discuss plans to finish building a rear porch roof for her home. He left around 11 a.m., and said he would return in an hour. Neighbors said Stone never returned. They later heard him return home late Saturday night.

Stone and Tabit broke off a relationship in August, according to police and neighbors. Tabit had not visited Stone's home since then, neighbors said.

Arrest papers say Tabit called Stone around 11 Saturday night and asked him to pick her up in Kingston. At Stone's home, Tabit used his computer to play cards and chat online, and then made food for herself and Stone.

Soon after, the argument began.

Tabit wanted to go home immediately, while Stone wanted to take a nap first, police said.

During the argument, Tabit slapped Stone, and they proceeded to shove each other, Stone told police.

Stone admitted to police that during the fight, he grabbed a hatchet that was in the kitchen and repeatedly struck Tabit in the head, killing her.

"I can't believe I got in an argument with her and did what I did," Stone told police, according to arrest papers.

After contemplating jumping in the Susquehanna River behind his home, Stone went to his tenant's home, adjacent to his property, to say he thought he killed his ex-girlfriend.

Neighbors said police had been called to the home once or twice before due to domestic disputes. No domestic violence charges were filed against them. Court records indicate neither held a protection-from-abuse order against one another.

Tabit was previously the subject of a PFA order in March 2000 filed by her ex-husband, who accused her of kicking his prosthetic hip, punching him in the head, and threatening him with kitchen utensils, pots, pans and knives, records show.

Court records also show Stone and Tabit have been arrested on crack cocaine charges. Tabit was additionally arrested three times for driving under the influence, including an incident on Nov. 22, 2007, in which she admitted to smoking crack behind the wheel while leading police on a 95 mph pursuit on Route 11 from Plymouth Township to Shickshinny.

Stone remains jailed in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility without bail.

bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2055

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